Unitary prehung door and frame



March 4, 1969 A. J. BIRO Flled April 10, 1967 Sheet of 5 INVENTOR. ALEXAMJERJB/Ro BY Cmeorueesfngomzas All: A rraeuevs March 4, 1969 A. J. BIRO 3,430,385

UNITARY PREHUNG DOOR AND FRAME Filed April 10, 1967 Sheet 2 of 5 E195 fig. 7

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March 4, 1969 A. J. BIRO UNITARY FREHUNG DOOR AND FRAME Sheet Filed April 10, 1967 Q m llllllll r l h N1 Q y R k V\ w\ 2 m M R w a. Q M Q 1 m4 m R 3 w m INVENTOR. A 1. EXAAIDEE J. Ema

BY 7 (A ear/45254: 0480771685 H15 41' TORNE Y8 United States Patent 3,430,385 UNITARY PREHUNG DOOR AND FRAME Alexander J. Biro, Indiana, Pa., assignor to Season-All Industries, Inc., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Apr. 10, 1967, Ser. No. 629,492 US. Cl. 49380 13 Claims Int. Cl. F16b 00, 7/00; E04c 2/38 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A prehung door permanently secured to one side and temporarily fastened to the other side of a door frame for shipment and to be attached to the jamb and lintel of a permanent door frame to function as door opening face trim, and the actual permanent support for the combination screen and storm door.

Prior art Relative to the Door Frame, 2,755,894, Class l8946.

Background of the invention The present screen and storm door combination are preferably prehung before shipment. Very little attention has been paid to temporary attachment of the door to the frame since the packaging of the prehung door and frame was intended to take care of this problem. Difficulties arose because parts of the frame being of light metal would be readily injured even through suitably packaged making them unsightly and frequently unusable. An attempt was made to insert screws through the jamb parts of the frame into the door edges which was not satisfactory when washers were applied and difliculty resulted in the structure of the jamb. Again the lintel of the frame had to be provided with a protruding header which deviated from a flush frame facing.

Summary of invention The principal feature and object of this invention is the provision of a prehung door and permanently attached frame having its lintel and jamb frame sections secured in overlying relation to embrace the door in operative relation and position the door face in the plane of the marginal faces of the frame. The door and frame are substantially flush and provide a pleasant appearance as well as a practical service when the lintel and jamb sections are secured to the respective permanent lintel and jamb frame sections of the permanent structure.

The free jamb section of the frame is secured to the swinging edge of the door before shipment by a spacer which is clipped or screwed between the door edge and jamb adjacent to the bottom and at the opening for receiving the door handle screw a clip spacer between the door edge and jamb on the door front and a pressure biased clamp clip on the back engaging the doorstop adjacent the jamb to maintain the door in its closed position with the jamb exerting pressure on the front spacer.

Other objects and advantagse of this invention appear hereinafter in the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawings show, for the purpose of exemplification without limiting the invention or the claims thereto, certain practical embodiments illustrating the principles of this invention wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a door secured in a frame.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of one end of the lintel of the door frame with tabs extended.

FIG. 3 is an end view of the lintel section of FIG. 2 with the tabs bent in place.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the door jamb section.

FIG. 5 is a View in side elevation showing the lintel and jamb sections connected together.

FIG. 6 is a view in front elevation showing a lintel and jamb sections connected together and parts broken away.

FIG. 7 is a modified view of a lintel and jamb sections connected together.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating the connected lintel and jamb sections of the frame.

FIG. 9 is a view in cross section taken along the lines 99 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along the lines 1010 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the under side of the door and jamb section secured by a locking link.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of a modified form of a locking link.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, the door 1 may be of any suitable structure. However, as illustrated it is preferably constructed of stiles 2 and 3 and rails 4 and 5 with mullions 6 and 7. All of these parts are preferably of tubular extrusion cross section of the stile 3 illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. The stiles, rails and mullions are secured with inserted corner and joint gusset members so as to provide a substantial door frame.

The upper panel 8 as shown in FIG. 1 is indicated as a screen panel which may be covered or replaced by glass to form a storm door in the winter time.

The second panel 10 is glass and it is usually permanently inserted although a screen panel may be substituted therefor. The bottom panel 11 is preferably made of metal such as aluminum and is provided with ornamental designs drawn in the metal of the panel as indicated at 12 for the purpose of providing rigidity for the panel.

As shown in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11, the door edges 13 are ordinarily formed with opposed inturned flanges 14 and 15 which strengthen the edges of the stile and rail members and at the same time provide a recess for the reception of the door assembly screws such as indicated at 16 in FIG. 11 of which there are usually four on each side of a corner of the door.

The door frame indicated at 17 consists of the lintel or header section 18 and the hinge jamb section 20 and the opposite jamb section 21. Each of the jamb sections 20 and 21 are secured at their upper ends to the header section 18 and the hinge jamb section 20 has the four permanent hinge members 22 each of which is similar in structure and which are separated by axially aligned tubular sections 23. The actual hinge members are inserted pins spring biased in opposite directions to seat in and hold together opposed hinge surface elements. This type of hinge is known in the art.

As shown in FIGS. 2. to 6, the header 18 of the door frame 17 has at its opposite ends the locking lug means or tab members 24 which are bent over at right angles to the lintel section of the header as shown in FIG. 3 for the purpose of being received into the pocket member 25 adjacent the upper edge 26 of the jamb section 21 and as illustrated in FIG. 5 the lower end of the tab 24 is turned upwardly as illustrated at 29 over the under edge of the pocket 25 to securely lock both ends of the lintel section to the respective upper ends of the jamb sections 20 and 21.

As also shown in FIG. 2, a tab 27 is struck outwardly and rearwardly from the lintel section 18 and that portion of the doorstop 28 is cut away or removed to form the tab 27 so that the latter will engage over the upper edge of each doorstop section 28 of the jamb sections 20 and 21. This construction permits the upper edge 26 of each jamb section to lie on a common plane and supply a firm support for the under surfaces of the ends of the lintel 18.

The foregoing structure is sufiicient to actually complete the door frame 17 since this door frame is eventually secured to the permanent corresponding lintel and jamb sections of the permanent door frame on the building. Thus the lintel section 18 provides its doorstop section 28 and abuts against the edge of the doorstop 28 of both jamb sections 20 and 21 at the marginal line 30' shown in FIG. 6. These doorstop faces 28 are usually provided with a sealing material which is preferably made of resilient plastic or wool such as felt or otherwise fixed to their respective parts as indicated at 31 in FIG. 6. The under face of the lintel 32 thus abuts against the jamb faces 33 and 34 of the jamb sections 20' and 21 respectively.

The lintel 18 is provided with a marginal frame face 35 that overlies the outer marginal frame faces 36 and 37 of the jamb sections 20 and 21 respectively and rest on the upper edges 26 of these jamb sections.

To further lock the frame at the corners the material from which the tabs 24 have been cut is also cut to form the tabs 40 and 41. The tab 40 is merely bent downwardly to engage the edge of the tab 24 to keep the same from shifting forwardly in the pocket 25. The tab 41 is bent downwardly as shown in FIGS. and 6 to engage the rear surface of the outer marginal frame face 37 of each of the jamb sections 20 and 21. Thus the tab 24 that is interlocked within the pocket 25 is also supplemented by the tab 41 and prevents any lateral movement of the lintel relative to the jamb sections the tab 40 strengthening the overlying end sections of the lintel and the tabs 41 interlocking the back of the outer marginal frame faces to give relative support to these marginal frame faces on the lintel and jamb sections.

Referring to FIG. 7, the pocket 25 is made larger. However, there are two tabs 42 and 43. Tab 42 is constructed in the same manner as the tab 24 and extends through the pocket and is turned up to interlock as illustrated at 44. This tab extends on the rear side of the jamb face of the jamb sections 20 and 21.

Tab 43 extends down the inner face 34 of the jamb faces 20 and 21 and extends through the bottom slot of the pocket 25 and then is turned upwardly as indicated at 45 to interlock the same with the jamb sections 20 and 21. Thus these tab members are on opposite sides of the jamb sections 20 and 21 providing a stronger interlocking arrangement. However, the upper edges 26 of the jamb sections 20 and 21 support the opposite sides of the lintel surface 32. The tab 43 is bent downwardly slightly ahead of the bend in the tab 22 to make allowances for the thickness of the jamb sections forming the faces 34.

As shown in FIG. 8, the tab member 46 is provided with a button 47 having an upper edge 48 when the tab 46 is shoved through the slit pocket 25 and the button 47 just clears the lower edge of the slit pocket 25 the upper surface 48 of the button or expanded lug engages the under surface of the pocket 25 and thereby locks the members together.

After the frame has been assembled and is permanently hinged by the hinge members 22 to jamb member 20, a bolt 50 is employed to clamp the free stile 3 of the door 1 to its respective jamb member 21 by means of the spacer clip 51 and the clamp clip 52 as shown in FIG. 9. The clamp clip is provided with a threaded opening at 53 to receive the threaded bolt 50. The holes usually provided through the stile 3 of the door for the handle are ordinarily larger in diameter than the bolt 50'. However, this does not make any difference because the spacer clip 51 with its inturned flange 54 that properly spaces the jamb face 34 from the edge of the door and the clamp clip members 52 is so shaped with its pressure applicating flange 55 extending beyond the door edge and providing a clearance at 56 between the inner face of the clamp 52 and the face of the stile 3 so as to provide a clamping force as well as a force to effect a pressure in the direction of the arrow indicated at 57 against the spacer flange 54.

Thus when the screw 50 is tightened the clip clamp 52 exerts a greater pressure as indicated along the arrow at 57 and not only prevents the door from leaving the center of the jamb 21 but holding the jamb face 34 tightly against the spacer 54 adjacent the outer face of the frame.

As shown in FIG. 10, a hat shaped spacer member 58 places flanges 60 and 61 between the flanges 14 and 15 and the face 34 of the jamb section 21 and is held in place by the screw 62. This simple arrangement is placed approximately in line with the lower spring 22 in the middle of the panel 11.

As shown in FIG. 11, the 'bottom of the door stile is in engagement with bottom rail 5 and the latter has a screw 16 holding the joint together. This screw may be loosened and a locking member 63 having an open slot 64 to slide under the screw since the locking member 63 is narrower than the space between the oppositely disposed flanges 14 and 15. The upturned flange 65 engages the outer face of the jamb section 21 to hold it inwardly against the door edge. Since this locking member 63 is spaced somewhat from the spacer 58 and the screw 62 the locking member may be held under friction and merely force the jamb section against the edge of the door. However, if desired the spacer 58 may be inserted between the jamb and the door. It will 'be noted that in FIG. 1 the locking member 63 is bent in order to extend beyond the bottom edge of the door and brace of the bottom edge of the jamb section 21.

As shown in FIG. 12, the locking member 63 may have in place of the slot 64 a "bayonet lock 66 to slide over the path of the bolt 16 and when the flange 65 engages the outer jamb surface the fiat portion of the locking plate 63 may be clamped in place to hold the end of the door jamb section 21 secured to the door during shipment.

Iclaim:

1. A prehung door and frame with lintel and jamb sections of matched Z strips each section defining outer marginal frame front faces and spaced parallel doorstop faces connected together by lintel and jamb faces disposed at right angles thereto, the lintel section overlying and engaging the top end edges of the matched jamb, stop and front face sections to position the door and frame marginal front faces in substantially one plane, a permanent hinge secured to the door and to one jamb section and the other jam-b section being free, said marginal frame front faces and said stop faces being clean and free of mounting holes, a jamb pocket on the back of each jamb face spaced from its respective overlying lintel face, and a depending locking lug means on each overlying end of said lintel face and extending down over the top end edges of its adjacent jamb face and interengaging and locked in its respective jamb pocket to secure said lintel and jamb sections together and spaced from said door, said lintel face overlying said top end edges of said jamb and stop faces.

2. The prehung door and frame of claim 1 characterized by an upward facing locking means on the end of each depending locking lug to engage and lock on said pocket in securing said lintel and jamb sections together.

3. The prehung door and frame of claim 2 characterized by a turned up part on the end of said lug providing said upward locking means.

4. The prehung door and frame of claim 2 characterized by a turned up flange the marginal edge of which engages with the bottom edge of a stuck out section providing said pocket in each jamb face.

5. The prehung door and frame of claim 2 characterized by opposed expressed buttons in said locking lugs the opposed edges of which are interengaged with the bottom edge of said pockets to lock said lintel and jamb sections and spaced from said door.

6. The prehung door and frame of claim 1 characterized by said hinge secured to said one frame jamb section and one stile of said door to swing therein, spacer means between said other jamb section and said other door stile having means to secure them together to maintain the spacing between said door and jamb section and to prevent said door from swinging on said hinge in said frome when shipping.

7. The hinged door and frame of claim 6 characterized by clip means cooperating with said spacer means, and bolt means extending through said clip and-spacer means and the door stile to secure said door stile and said other jamb section and maintain the spacing therebetween.

8. The hinged door and frame of claim 6 characterized by screw means passing from the back face through said jamb section and said spacer means and into said door stile as said means to secure them together.

9. The hinged door and frame of claim 1 characterized by a clip secured to said other door stile face adjacent a handle opening and having a spacer extending between said other jamb section and said other door style, and fastening means securing said clip to said handle opening to prevent said door from swinging on said hinge in said frame when secured.

10. The hinged door and frame of claim 9 characterized by a spacer between said other door stile and said other jamb section adjacent the bottom of said door, and a screw means passing from the back face through said other jamb section and spacer and secured in said door to hold them together.

11. The hinged door and frame of claim 9 characterized by an L-shaped locking member hooked over the bottom edge to the back of said other jamb section and secured to the bottom of said door mullion by a screw.

12. A prehung door and frame with lintel and jamb sections of matched Z strips each section defining outer marginal frame faces and spaced parallel doorstop faces connected together by lintel and jamb faces disposed at right angles thereto, the lintel section overlying and engaging the top ends of the matched jamb sections to position the door and frame marginal faces in substantially one plane, a permanent hinge secured to the door and to one jamb section and the other jamb section being free, a jamb pocket in each jamb face spaced from its respective overlying lintel face, a depending locking lug means on each overlying end of said lintel face and extending down over the top end of its adjacent jamb face and interengaging and locking in its respective jamb pocket to secure said lintel and jamb sections together and spaced from said door, a clip secured to said other door stile face adjacent a handle opening and having a spacer extending between said other jamb section and said other door stile, and fastening means securing said clip to said handle opening to prevent said door from swinging on said hinge in said frame when secured, a spring pressure clip secured to the rear of said other door stile and an inturned portion pressing against the rear of said other doorstop face to press said other jamb section tightly against said clip spacer.

13. The hinged door and frame of claim 1 characterized by a spring pressure clip secured to the rear of said other door stile and having an inturned portion pressing against the rear of said other doorstop face to press said other jamb section tightly toward the front edge of said other door stile.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,975,622 10/ 1934 Schermerhorn 287-18936 XR 2,627,948 2/1953 Farr 160-381 XR 2,869,694 1/1959 Breckheimer 287-18936 XR 2,911,095 11/1959 Hutch 49-380 XR 2,917,790 12/1959 Espenschied 49-380 XR 2,927,352 3/1960 Chenoweth 49-380 3,205,982 9/1965 Chimienti 49-380 XR 3,216,066 11/1965 Hadacek 49-380 XR KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

